In a Hartford I. S. type glassware forming machine each individual section has one or more blank molds into which one or more gobs of molten glass are deposited for the purpose of forming a preliminary parison or parisons. These parisons are formed inverted, and the neck portions of the parisons are actually formed to final shape in a neck ring mold at the blank side of the machine. The neck ring mold is then used to transfer the parisons to the blow side of the machine for the final forming step. The parisons are released at the blow side for this purpose, a blow head being lowered onto the blow mold in order to form the parisons into shape dictated by the blow molds after the neck ring molds have been returned to the blank side to cooperate with the blank mold in forming another group of parisons as the first group of articles are being final formed.
The mechanism for transferring the neck ring molds between the blank and the blow side of the machine section comprises left and right hand neck ring arms, the inner ends of which arms are mounted to a hub or neck ring structure so as to be oscillatable together, that is between the blank and blow mold stations or sides of the machine section. This hub structure, or neck ring mechanism, also includes means for moving these arms toward and away from one another to release the parisons at the blow station. Conventionally, the neck ring mold halves or segments are mounted directly to these arms by clamping screws or the like. However, with the advent of double and triple gob operation for the Hartford I. S. type glassware machine the removal for replacement or repair of the six neck ring mold halves required in a triple gob configuration has led to excessive downtimes in the individual machine section concerned. The purpose of the present invention is to avoid such excessive downtime in the glassware forming machine due to removal for replacement or repair of the various neck ring mold segments.